Beginning of Essay
“I will not allow anybody to minimize my life, not anybody, not a living soul- nobody, no lover, no mother, no son, no boss, no president, no body.” (Maya Angelou) In Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, she, Maya, tells the reader abo ....

Middle of Essay
.... to the tone of Angelou’s autobiography, as it was to the tone of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd. It was only through the dialect that the reader was able to understand Billy’s character. As in Billy Budd, Angelou uses dialect in her writings to enhance the tone of the book. “That’s right. You know, the children was readin’ me something th’ other day, Say folks dream about whatever was on their mind when they went to sleep.”(Pg. 158) Angelou quoted her “momma” [paternal grandmother], and allows the reader to feel a sense as if momma was really saying something to them; she brings momma to ....